It’s time to start baking, if you haven’t already. Treat swaps, tree-decking afternoons, and Christmas itself—cookies are the currency of the season, and it’s nice to have a winning recipe up your ugly Christmas sweater sleeve.
Enter chocolate-dipped espresso buttercreams, where buttery shortbread meets decadent dark chocolate, and rich espresso in the shortbread and frosting gives this cookie true Northwest flavor. They’re easy to put together, leaving you plenty of time for the rest of the seasonal flurry.
Dipped Espresso-Buttercream Shortbread Cookies
Makes 36 cookies
Espresso Shortbread Cookies
3 sticks salted butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
2 ounce espresso, or very strongly brewed hot coffee (I picked my favorite from last week’s list, Velton’s Holiday Blend.)
1 ¾ cups flour
1 cup corn starch
Beat butter, sugar and espresso on medium until fluffy. Sift flour and corn starch together into the butter mixture. With a pastry cutter, incorporate all ingredients. Gather mixture into a loose ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for half an hour.
When dough is chilled, roll to ¼-inch thickness on a floured surface. Cut oval, circle or star-shaped cookies, transfer to greased cookie sheets, and bake at 325 for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
Espresso Buttercream Filling
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 ounce milk
1 ounce espresso, or very strongly brewed hot coffee
Beat ingredients on low until well-incorporated, adding more milk if necessary. Keep frosting cool until ready to assemble cookies.
To assemble cookies, spread a spoonful of espresso buttercream between each pair of shortbread cookies to make sandwiches. Melt 16 ounces of dipping chocolate over low heat until liquid. Dip each shortbread sandwich halfway into the chocolate. Set on waxed paper to cool until ready to share.
